Cereal-elevator leg-cleaner attachment



April 8, 1924; 1,489,290

, v F. B. WALTHER CEREAL ELEVATOR LEG CLEANER ATTACHMENT Filed May 18, 1923 TH? L.

BYWWQ ATTORNEYS.

Patented Apr. 8, 1924.

FERDINAND B. WALTHER,

or scorrssusc, INDIANA.

CEREAL-ELEVATOR LEG-CLEANER ATTACHMENT; 7

Application filed May is,

T 0 all whom it may 00n067n Be it known that L'FnnniNnNn B, WAL- THER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Scottsburg, county of Scott, and State of Indiana, have invented a certain new and useful Cereal-Elevator Leg-Cleaner Attachment; and I do hereby declare that the following is a. full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals refer to like parts.

This invention relates to elevators and particularly to means for cleaning the leg thereof. The chief object of the invention is to provide an attachment which is adaptedto be associated with the conveyor for cleaning all of the sides of the leg.

The chief feature of the invention consists in the details of construction whereby the cleaner may be attached to the conveyor as an attachment, and furthermore may be attached thereto without severing the conveyor.

A further feature of the invention, by reason of its construction, is that portions of the same may be constructed so as to be standard for substantially all sizes of ele vator legs, and it being merely necessary to associate other parts with said standard parts, the former being constructed with reference to the particular dimensions of the legs.

The full nature of this inventionwill be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a cereal elevator including the leg, "the conveyor'and the attachment associatedtherewith. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional View of the elevator leg and a side clevational. view of the endless conveyor with the cleaner attached thereto, as shown inside elevation. Fig. 3 is a front View of the conveyor and the cleaner attachment supported thereby. V

In the drawings 10 indicates the front walls and 11 indicates the rear walls of a cereal elevator leg construction. The legs are formed by the front and rear walls with the addition of the side Walls 12. An andless belt 13, which preferably is of webbing,

is positioned in said legs andis supported upon the pulleys or drums 14; at the upper and lower ends. The belt or conveyor also or powdered cereal were the only 1923. Serial No. 639,804.

supports the usual buckets 15, which buckets areadapted to be filled with material supplied through the intake 16 and are adapted to discharge said material through the discharge or outlet 17. The attachment associated with the conveyor, and preferably supported by the belt, is indicated generally in Fig. 1 by the numeral 18. In cereal elevators it heretofore has been the practice to provide a cleaner carried by the conveyor, but this cleaner did not perform in a satisfactory manner. Cleaners of the character described usually constituted a brush and in service the bristles in said brush gradually assumed an inclined position and when in said position they exerted little or no pressure upon the walls of the elevator leg, and thus failed to perform the cleaning operation. The inherent construction of the cleaner was such that the brush could only be-positioned upon the forward face of the conveyor belt, since if positioned upon the rearward face of the belt and projected rearw'ardly to clean the rear wall of the elevator leg, said brush in passing over the pulleys would bindand prevent further movement of the belt. Furthermore the elevator leg varies slightly in size throughout its length, either due to errors in its original construction or due to warping after its construction. In either event, or both events, the brush cleaner previously described would not thoroughly clean the single face of theelevator leg that it was intended to clean. In a cereal elevator if flour things that collect upon the wall of the leg, cleaning of the same would not be a difiicult problem, but since the flour or ground cereal will adhere to the walls of the elevator leg, such a coating forms'an excellent breeding place formoths and vermin of all kinds.

Therefore, the necessity for cleaning not only one wall, but all the walls of the. elevator is imperative and to accomplish the same the hereinafter described invention is provided.

Reference will now be had to Figs. 2 and v3 wherein the detailed construction and the the pivot 20.

necessity of severingthe same and also when so positioned it does not interfere greatly with the operation of the belt when passing over the pulley.

The preferred form of the invention includes a pivotal support which in length is substantially the width of the elevator leg and the pivotal support is suitably secured to the front face of the belt. Herein said pivotal support is shown formed from a strip of sheet metal, rolled into cylindrical form and provided at its meeting edges with two projecting flanges 21 adapted to lie parallel to each other and be simultaneously secured together and to the webbing by suitable means. indicated by the numeral 22. This securing means may be rivets or other equivalent devices. Positioned upon the free and projecting ends of said pivot 20 are substantially similar side members. These sidemembers are substantially V- shaped in outline, as shown clearly in Figs. 1 and 2. Herein the back leg of said side member is indicated by the numeral 23 and the fore leg thereof is indicated by the nu meral 24. The fore leg is offset inwardly at 25 to provide a space for a plurality of coils 26 which connect the fore leg 24: to the back leg 23 and provide a bearing that receives The fore leg and back leg 24: and 23, by reasons of the coil spring con.- struction connectingthe same, extend outwardly into engagement with the sides 12 of the elevator leg, and thus are adapted to clean the entire side surfaces thereof.

. Preferably the front and rear wall cleaning. members are substantially the same and herein said members. are indicated by the numerals 27 and 28 respectively. A description of one, however, will be suflicient for them both. v Preferably the cleaning element comprises: a layer of felt or webbing having suitable characteristics and is indicated by the numeral 29. Said webbing is supported between a pair of flanges 30 and 31 by a suitable securing means herein indicated by the numeral 32 and this may be rivets or equivalent device. Said flanges 30 and 31 are connected together by a loop 33 and this cylindrical or loop portion 33 provides at each end a socket for the reception of the inwardly turned end 34: upon the fore leg and the back leg 24 and 23 respectively. If desired the cleaning element 29,together with its support including the flanges 30 and 31, may be otherwise con-' structed to suit the particular requirements.

From the foregoing it will be understood that the V-shaped side member comprises a coiled spring at its apex with outwardly extending portions which terminate in inwardly extending ends, and the ends of two of said'members are adapted to-be con nected together by a pair of cleaning elements such as 27 and 28. These cleaning elements are of sufficient width to clean the entire front and rear faces of the elevator leg. Preferably the pivotal support 20is of the same width. In this manner the pivotal support and the cleaning connectors can be made for the usual width of the elevator legs and the side members can be made standard for substantially all Widths of elevator legs. This ispossible because of the yielding formation of the side members, for said side memberswill tend to force the front and rear cleaning elements outwa-rdi} away from each other and thus said elements will always bear upon the front and rear walls 10 and 11 of the elevator leg within, of course, the range of yielding movementof said side members. Since the side members are pivotally mounted and include a yielding connection, it will be apparent that when the belt portion supporting the cleaner attachment passes over the pulley 14 the cleaner will attempt to swing outwardly from the belt so as to position the back portions 23 of the side members in alignment with the belt .13 and the back cleaning element 28 substantially adjacent thereto and thus pass over the pulley with relatively little resistance. In this tilting movement, the forward portions 24 on the side members tend to swing upwardly and outwardly, cari ing with it the cleaning element 27. If tiere is not sufiicient distance above the pulley in the chute, but usually there is, the two portions 23 and 24 of said side member approach each other and thus cause the two cleaning members 27 and 28 to approach each other, but this condition is unusual in elevator practice so that the foregoing does not usually occur, but should it be necessary by reason of the particular construction of the elevator, this previously described action will occur.

In order to. secure cleaning action upon the front and rear walls, through the cleaning members 27 and 28, some means must be provided for restraining tilting move.- ment of said cleaning elements upon the supports. Herein the tongue portions 34:. are formed integral with and from the sheet metal strip which forms the flanges 30 and 31 and the connecting loop 33. These projecting tongues or strip members 34 engage the side members and preventtilting movement of the front and rear cleaning members 27 and 28 inwardly toward the belt beyond a predetermined limit. 7

While the invention has been described in great detail in the foregoing specifications, such detailed description is given for the sole purpose of furnishing a complete understanding of the invention and the same is not to be considered restrictive in character for the many modifications of the invention which may be made by those skilled in the art to which the same applies are all to be considered as included within the scope of the same, reference being had to the following claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. A cleaner for a conveyor leg comprising a support positioned on a conveyor, a U-shaped cleaner positioned upon one side of said support, and another U-shaped cleaner at the opposite side of said support for cleaning the entire leg.

2. A cleaner for a conveyor leg including a conveyor comprising means positioned at each side of the conveyor and supported thereby, and means extending transversely of the conveyor and supported by said side means at opposite sides of the conveyor for cleaning the entire leg.

3. The combination with an elevator leg and an endless conveyor therein, of an attachment secured to said endless conveyor and extending forwardly and rearwardly thereof for cleaning the front and back of the leg.

4;. The combination with an elevator comprising a leg, a. pulley, an endless conveyor in said leg and passing over said pulley, of an attachment supported by said conveyor and positioned so as to clean the front and rear walls of the leg, and associated with the conveyor so as to pass over the pulley with a minimum, resistance to such discharge.

5. A cleaner comprising a pair of V- shaped side members, a pair of connections between the free ends of said V-shaped side members, and means associated with the apex of the V-sha-ped side members for supporting the side members.

6. A cleaner comprising a pair of V- sliaped side members, a pair of connections between the free ends of said V-shaped side members, and means pivotally associated with the apex of the V-shaped side members for supporting the side members in tilting relation.

7. A cleaner comprising a pair of V- shaped side members, each including a resilient pontion at the apex, a'pair of connections between the free ends of the V-shaped side members, and means associated with the apex of the V-shaped side members for supporting the side members and the connections in yielding relation.

8. A cleaner comprising a pair of V- shaped side members, each including a resilient portion at the apex, a pair of connections between the free ends of the V- shaped side members, and means pivotally associated with the yielding portions of the V-shaped side members for supporting the sid members in tilting relation, whereby the connections are supported in yielding relation. 1

9. A cleaner for an elevator leg comprising a pivot of substantially the width of the leg, a spring coiled about the ends of the pivot with portions extending outwardly therefrom and with the free ends of said outwardly extending portions turned angularly and inwardly thereto, and cleaning mecims connecting said inwardly turned en s.

10. A device of the character described in claim 9 characterized by thepivotal support of the connecting means, and the addition of means for limiting the tilting movement thereof.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my signature. I

FERDINAND B. WALTHER. 

